Martin Winterkorn will remain the boss of Volkswagen until at least the end of 2018, following a resolution taken by the firm's supervisory board today.

In a statement, chairman of VW's supervisory board Berthold Huber said: "Together with Professor Martin Winterkorn at the helm we will continue on our successful path of recent years and systematically implement the goals of Strategy 2018."

There had previously been speculation about whether Winterkorn would remain at the helm of the Volkswagen Group, after he was directly criticised by former board boss Ferdinand Piëch, who resigned in April.

Piëch – a member of the Porsche family – was seen as the VW Group’s main player since he became chairman of the board of VW management in 1993.

In a statement issued at the time of Piëch's resignation, Volkswagen said: "The members of the steering committee came to a consensus that, in the light of the past weeks, the mutual trust necessary for successful cooperation was no longer there.

"Against this background, Professor Doctor Ferdinand K. Piech resigned from his office as chairman as well as all his supervisory board mandates within the Volkswagen group with immediate effect."

Earlier this summer, Volkswagen toppled Toyota to become the world's largest car maker by car sales. The VW group sold 5.04 million cars worldwide in the first six months of this year, compared to 5.02 million units from Toyota.

The resolution to extend Winterkorn's contract will be officially submitted as part of the VW Group's next meeting at the end of this month.

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The relative financial performance of VW v the other brands in the stable always seems to me to be as much about politics as numbers. For example, although both Audi and Bentley seem to be out-performing the mother group, without access to VW technology they would be nowhere.

The much heralded MQB platform might not be as profitable as hoped, but they still have lots more models to roll out. VW has created an impressive technology platform for which customers are prepared to pay a premium. Making money (any money) from selling small and medium cars in Europe is no mean feat.

They did this before they ousted the last CEO Pischetsreider. Lower Saxony, a major shareholder rallied round him and got his contract renewed, but then Porsche strengthed their hold on the VW group, and he got ousted 6 months later. Piech and the Porsche families control 51% of the voting rights, so Winterkorn could still be ousted.

Shame you have to go to the business press to get decent coverage with facts and figures.